The Hand is Growing

I last posted a week ago. Since then, I have not heard from the surgeon. No, I am not kidding. Friday will be three weeks since I saw him for the initial appointment and had the x-ray done at his request. My hand hurts all the time now and this thing is growing. 

I called this morning for the second time to see what the holdup was. For all I know my insurance had denied coverage. The Phone Answer Person listened (I thought) as I explained my situation after I gave her my information pertinent to pulling my chart up. She then gave me a response I am sure she has shared with many a patient. "We are still waiting for your lab results to come in. When they do, we will notify you."

Pain makes me a bit bitchy witchy, and I can be sarcastic, as I am sure all of you know. I wanted to ask PAP if she had even listened to me. She went on to say that the lab they use is changing out their equipment and is taking a little longer than usual. I told her that changing out equipment can be done in one day and that if their turn around time is that long they might consider changing labs. Be that as it may, I did not have any lab work done, just an x-ray done the same day as the appointment.

PAP said, "Oh." Then she assured me that she, herself would go to the facility herself to obtain the x-rays and call me back. She said that was a promise and that she never broke her promises. Okay, I am old, not senile. There is no need to address me as if I am 5 with promises. Are we going to pinkie swear and seal the deal with butterfly kisses?

Time will tell, I do not have high hopes. I will give them until Friday before asking my PCP for another consult.

In the meantime, my hand hurts and I am crabby. The clutter and stuff that seems to pile up when I am not feeling my best is making me somewhat insane.

I can work hard when I am mad. Dora, the turtle benefitted from this today. I tackled the cleaning of her summer home. Dora has three habitats. One in the house, one for traveling and her big sprawling summer mansion on the deck.

It is a clear container meant to store a Christmas tree. It is deep and she loves splashing in all that space. It was algae stained and I scrubbed it down along with her collection of things that make her happy. While my good hand and my bad hand were occupied scrubbing, my very astute mind was also hard at work. Her old habitat that The Man paid a small fortune for has a small slit in the bottom. The Man thinks he can "fix" it.

Instead, I determined that it would easily fit inside her big habitat, upside down. The Man was on an errand, so I grabbed a butcher knife and cut an opening in one end. This made a nice hide for her. It is over 2/3 the size of her summer home and she can easily swim around and hide herself if she chooses. She is so happy now. She has splashed and played all day.

Kevin, the cat, was sad to stay inside all day yesterday due to steady rain. He stared longingly out the window. He can see the upper deck from the window. This is where Garfield and Marble hang out. Lucy stays under the tool shed. Kevin loves Lucy and they play wrestle or just lay out in the sun, never too far apart. Garfield has grown a lot. His head is huge! He let me give his head a good scratching this morning. When I offered my leftover cube steak from last night, Marble elbowed all the others out of her way and snarled in her raspy voice. Kevin got a little brave, him being the only cat to live inside, but she put him in his place. Lucy and Garfield didn't even try; they just backed off. Her belly swings from side to side now and any day there should be kittens.